[NoSkillz]

Tue. October 28, 2025

League Cup - Fourth Round
Dover (1st in Premier League) vs. Leeds (4th in Championship)
Crabble Athletic Ground, Dover, England

Betting Odds: Dover: 1-4 (Favourites) Draw: N/A Leeds: 9-1
Past Meetings: 1W 1D 1L

Leeds have spent most of this dynasty in the Championship but did suffer a two year drop to League 1 before returning for good in 2021. They’ve been knocking at the door for a couple years and once again find themselves in good shape to make a playoff run or perhaps gain automatic promotion by finishing in the top two. They haven’t played in the Premier League since 2003/04. Their top scorer is midfielder/striker Joe Mason, who has 9 goals in 15 matches. I don’t recognize any other names on the club.

We’ll use this opportunity to give our backups some playing time and make 10 changes from our United match, with only Sergio De la Vega starting from that match. Arsene Bamba and Emmerson Harvey both are starting for the first time all year as both look to regain match fitness after injuries. Chris Davies is in goal. We should win big today, even with this lineup. We also call up three players from the U18 team for our bench and perhaps one or more will get their first senior level game: Jonathan Langlet, Andrew Hunter and Ralf Kramer.

Dover: 4-4-2 Control
GK - C. Davies
D - Rafinha, A. Torres, M. Mutesa, R. Lopez
M - A. Bamba, E. Harvey, N. Cairney, S. De la Vega
S - A. Broomes, M. Lugo
Bench - R. Kramer, A. Hunter, Jose, P. Secchi, J. Langlet, G. Bolis, Z. Bardi

Leeds are in a flat 4-4-2 to start and have Joe Mason up front with Ewan Murphy. Quentin Beunardeau is their keeper. Sergio De la Vega is looking overconfident according to my assistant - this guy is driving me nuts - he hasn’t played well at all so far and seems to have an attitude. Great…I tell him I expect a good performance today and tell the team I expect a big win.

5’ - Well, the kid at least listened to me! We have control and it’s Manuel Lugo feeding a nice ball through the box to De la Vega and he puts the ball past Beunardeau and it’s in. That’s De la Vega’s first goal with Dover! DOVER GOAL 1-0

35’ - We send a long ball over the defence and Andy Broomes uses his great speed to beat the defenders to it and he easily beats the Leeds keeper to give us a bit of a cushion. DOVER GOAL 2-0

HALFTIME - A reasonably comfortable first half, although Leeds have four shots on target, a bit too high a number. We edge them in possession (51%) and hold a 15-4 (8-4 on target) shot advantage.

57’ - De la Vega dribbles down the right flank and has two defenders chasing him. He delivers a cross into the area and it’s Arsene Bamba, cutting in from the left side and hitting a shot off the volley and it’s in. That’s Bamba’s first of the year! DOVER GOAL 3-0

Just prior to the goal, Andy Broomes gets the cross of doom above his name after a challenge and he takes a large fitness hit. He may miss some time. I take him out and bring in Zoltan Bardi.

80’ - I take out Bamba and bring in 17 year old Jonathan Langlet for his first ever senior appearance.

81’ - We have the ball down the right flank and it’s Bardi with it. He somehow gets a cross into the area and it’s Manuel Lugo with a DIVING HEADER that gets past Beunardeau and in!!! That’s Lugo’s first goal of the year as well and a gorgeous one at that! DOVER GOAL 4-0

Very solid.

Dover 4 - 0 Leeds
Goals - Sergio De la Vega (8.7), Andy Broomes (8.0), Arsene Bamba (8.1), Manuel Lugo (8.4)
Assists - Rafinha (8.6), Sergio De la Vega, Manuel Lugo, Zoltan Bardi (6.9)
Man of the Match - Sergio De la Vega
Other Dover Notables - Rodolfo Lopez (7.8), Mwemere Mutesa (8.4), Adrian Torres (7.6), Neil Cairney (7.5)
Attendance - 22,122

We held 53% of possession and outshot them 29-5 (11-4 on target). A great second half performance and one of those calming games where a few players who are struggling finally gain some confidence after fine performances, speaking specifically about De la Vega and Lugo.

-- Interestingly enough, QPR knock off Manchester United 3-2 so United is OUT of the League Cup as our path to a potential final continues to get easier!



Dover Reserves Update

-- We have a reserves match only one day after the Leeds game so we field a bunch of U18 players and still destroy Blackpool’s reserves 8-0!! And we played with ten men from the 16 minute mark, as U18 striker Bakary Kone got a straight red card for a foolish challenge. Zoltan Bardi scored a hat trick, Neil Evans scored twice and we got singles from Danny Hope, Giuseppe Forti and Cheikh Gueye. Michel Benard and Ralf Kramer each had two assists.



November Update

-- We have four Premier League matches in November, as we face Liverpool (home), Birmingham (home), Middlesbrough (home) and Wolves (away). We also have two Champions League matches, with Spartak Moscow (away) and Real Madrid (away) making us work hard to qualify for the next round. So six matches in all.

-- The team continues to train well, with strikers Neil Evans, Zoltan Bardi and Paul Moses impressing the most. The U18 team sees good training performances from Domenico Fracassetti, Giuseppe Forti and Juan Jose Culebras.



October Premier League Awards

-- Striker Guy Luckett from Wolves wins the Barclays Premier League player of the month award after scoring four goals in three matches. Paul Moses came in second.

-- Liverpool’s Scott Bartley wins Young player of the month while two-time winner Rafinha comes in third.

-- We continue to get accolades for our fine goals, as Neil Cairney is awarded with the goal of the month after his curling rocket against Sheffield United.

-- And I win my second Manager of the Month award in the last three months.



League Cup - Quarterfinal Draw

-- We’re down to eight teams and there are still two Championship sides left in the competition. We’ve had fortunate draws all year and get yet another, as we draw QPR from the second tier league in yet another game at Crabble Athletic Ground. We’ll still have to be careful, as they just knocked off United. Still, this is great news for our chances of moving on.



Injury Update

-- Mads Pedersen is our only injured player and will miss about two more weeks of action.



Next Up

-- We are home to Liverpool in Premier League action.